Brave schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who escaped death after being shot in the head by the Taliban, waves as she leaves hospital following a remarkable recovery.

Malala, 15, came to symbolise the global campaign for female education after being targeted for speaking out against Taliban oppression in Pakistan.

Today the Birmingham hospital where she has been treated for the past two months revealed that she had been released to continue her rehabilitation alongside her family at their temporary home in the West Midlands.

Medics at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said Malala was now well enough to be treated as an outpatient. They admitted that she was “not out of the woods” when she arrived in the UK six days after being shot. Malala will be readmitted at the end of the month or in February for cranial reconstructive surgery.

Dr Dave Rosser, medical director of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery.

Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers.

“She will return to the hospital as an outpatient and our therapies team will continue to work with her at home to supervise her onward care.”

It also emerged today that Malala, whom envoy and actress Angelina Jolie said deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for her bravery in standing up to the Taliban, had left the hospital regularly over the past fortnight to spend time with her teacher father Ziauddin, mother Toorpekai and younger brothers Khushal and Atul.

Malala was shot on October 9 when gunmen boarded a school bus in the Swat valley and singled her out. She came within a “couple of inches” of death when a bullet brushed her brain and lodged in her neck.

It was removed in Pakistan before Malala was flown to the UK for specialist treatment at the hospital which also cares for soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.

Since her admission on October 15, Malala has been treated by experts in neurosurgery and trauma injuries. Her father, who has been appointed an education attaché at Pakistan’s consulate in Birmingham to enable him to remain in the UK for up to five years, described her as “everybody’s daughter” when he and his family arrived.

Vowing through tears of joy that “she will stand again”, he said that Malala was “amazed that men, women and children from across the world are interested in her well-being” and thanked the thousands who contributed to a charity appeal.

The Pakistan government has been paying for the “treatment and maintenance” of Malala and her family. Her case has been championed by former PM Gordon Brown, who organised an international day of action in November to raise awareness of the 32 million girls not receiving education.